HauntBound archive · catalog record
Reported phenomena — as catalogued
168 empty bronze chairs on the footprint of the Murrah Building mark the dead from the deadliest act of domestic terrorism in U.S. history.
620 N Harvey Ave, Oklahoma City, OK 73102
Research updated August 2026
Age
All Ages
Cost
$$
Outdoor Symbolic Memorial: free, open 24/7. Indoor museum: ticketed ($18 adults); see memorialmuseum.com for current pricing and free admission days.
Access
Wheelchair OK
Fully accessible outdoor memorial and museum facility.
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1977 · Deadliest Domestic Terrorist Attack in U.S. History · 168 Lives Lost Including 19 Children · National Memorial and NPS Affiliated Area
The Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building at 200 N.W. Fifth Street opened in 1977 and housed nineteen federal agencies. On the morning of April 19, 1995 — the second anniversary of the end of the Waco siege, a date McVeigh chose deliberately — a rented Ryder truck loaded with approximately 4,800 pounds of ammonium nitrate and nitromethane explosive mixture was parked in the drop-off zone at the building's north entrance.
The blast at 9:02 a.m. destroyed the Murrah Building's north facade and collapsed portions of several floors. The America's Kids Day Care Center, located on the second floor directly above the truck, suffered catastrophic structural collapse. 168 people died, including 19 children in the day care and one rescue worker killed during the recovery operation. More than 680 people were injured. The explosion damaged or destroyed 324 buildings within a 16-block radius.
McVeigh was stopped by a state trooper for driving without a license plate approximately 90 minutes after the explosion, roughly 80 miles north of Oklahoma City near Perry, Oklahoma. A concealed Glock pistol led to his detention. He was subsequently identified as a suspect in the bombing and transferred to federal custody. Terry Nichols, McVeigh's co-conspirator, was also convicted. McVeigh was executed by lethal injection on June 11, 2001, at the federal penitentiary in Terre Haute, Indiana. Nichols received multiple life sentences.
The Murrah Building site was cleared and the land dedicated as a memorial. The Symbolic Memorial opened April 19, 2000 — exactly five years after the bombing — and the indoor museum opened the same day. The memorial was designated an affiliated area of the National Park Service in 2004.
Sources
The Oklahoma City National Memorial occupies a different place in the dark-tourism and paranormal landscape than most 19th-century crime sites on Hauntbound. The bombing occurred within living memory; many of the survivors, first responders, and families of the 168 victims are still alive and still connected to the memorial. This context shapes how the site is treated in paranormal discussions.
Published paranormal accounts of the memorial are sparse compared to sites of similar scale and tragedy. What appears in regional ghost-tour discussions focuses not on specific phenomena but on emotional intensity: visitors describing sudden, overwhelming grief at the Field of Empty Chairs, the sense of a collective presence concentrated in the children's section of the chair field, and an atmospheric heaviness that persists even in groups that arrive in a social mood.
Several accounts from overnight vigil participants — who gather on April 19 each year for the annual remembrance — describe hearing children's voices in the predawn hours near the east end of the chair field, where the chairs corresponding to the second-floor day-care center are placed. These accounts are not formally documented or investigated.
The memorial staff and the Oklahoma City National Memorial Foundation do not promote or engage with paranormal claims. The site functions first as a place of civic grief and second as a museum of criminal investigation and community recovery. Visitors approaching it as dark tourism should hold that framing with care.
Self-guided visit to the Symbolic Memorial on the footprint of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building: 168 empty bronze-and-glass chairs arranged by floor of the building, a reflecting pool, the Survivor Tree (an American elm that survived the blast), and the Gates of Time. Free and open continuously.
Ticketed indoor museum chronicles the April 19, 1995 bombing, the investigation, the trials of Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols, and the community recovery process. Includes recovered artifacts, survivor testimony, and the Survivor Wall.
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